Unassuming Pillar of Boston Jewish Community Passes Away

Rabbi Pinchus “Pinny” Krinsky, a ritual slaughterer who tirelessly nurtured and supported a growing Jewish infrastructure in his hometown of Boston, passed away May 4 at the age of 82. Known for both his scholarly achievements and a profound humility, he was among the first to implement modern mass-production techniques to post-slaughter koshering of chickens.

Born in 1927 in suburban Boston to Rabbi Shmaya and Etta Krinsky, he grew up in a home characterized by his parents’ hospitality and activist spirit. In his childhood, Krinsky’s parents even enlarged their kitchen and bought a larger dinette table in order to accommodate throngs of guests.

After the 1940 arrival of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yizchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, in New York and the establishment of the central Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Krinsky joined his two brothers to learn there. When the Sixth Rebbe’s son-in-law, the future Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, arrived a year later and took the helm of the movement’s educational arm, Krinsky volunteered after his studies to help prepare publications under his editorial guidance.

A story Krinsky frequently shared illustrated the impact that the Rebbe, known then by the acronymic name Ramash, bearing had on the young teenager.

“Once my older sister came to the office where I was working, when the Ramash told me that [she was] waiting for me in the hallway,” Krinsky related in a 1999 interview. “I was hesitant, wanting to finish off my task [before] meeting her. The Ramash, seeing that I was taking my time, told me to ‘either bring her a chair to sit on while she waits for you, or invite her in to have a seat.’ ”

Brighton, Mass., Shmuel Volchek said that Krinsky exemplified the story’s message.

“He had an unbelievable respect for other people,” said Volchek, who looked to Krinsky as a mentor. “He was very understanding of us beginners, and had a huge amount of patience to learn with those whose Jewish educations were minimal.”

Another story that Krinsky told centered on being inspired by scholasticism typified by the Rebbe: Rabbi Nissan Telushkin, rabbi of the Nusach Ari synagogue in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, had arrived in Crown Heights for the nighttime recitation of the entire book of Psalms during the last intermediate day of Sukkot known as Hoshanah Rabbah. Prior to the beginning of Psalms, Telushkin entered into a scholarly discussion with the future Rebbe that outlasted the congregational recitation. But because many have the custom to not speak during the service, the two scholars would periodically pull thick volumes of Jewish law and the Talmud off the shelves, pointing to relevant passages to continue their discussion without words.

“He would always have a scholarly book open,” Bolchik remembered of Krinsky. “In his home, if he ever had a free second, he would sit and learn. He was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot.”

Article Continued (chabad.org)